


Agape

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Mass Murder, Mutiny, Past Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron As The All-Loving Hero, Soft Ben Solo, Well-Intentioned Extremist, if briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:08:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24174877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Poe didn’t revolt against Holdo out of ego — but out of love and loyalty to others.
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Everyone
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: Gen Prompt Bingo Round 18





	Agape

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Wild Card — Character Study
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

It was something that you noticed about Poe when you really got to know him — the fact that he simply _loved_ people. It wasn’t like he would flirt with them at every opportunity necessarily, aside from the occasional joke with Zorii. (Which was never followed through on. Zorii made it clear that she was his friend, no more no less) But he loved people easily, in the simple sense of basic compassion and affection for almost everyone.   
  
Poe couldn’t think of many people he genuinely disliked. He could thank his mother for that, actually. She had taught him that the galaxy was a fundamentally good place, and Poe clung deeply to it.   
  
Poe felt compassion. Compassion for so many people — seeing the good in Finn had been easy. So was assuring Lulo that he was also the best, or telling Threepio he deserved more respect than he got. He knew that Ben loved him if only for that. It had still been overwhelming, to be all but worshipped in every way by someone Poe knew had Light in him, even though he was battling monsters in his head.   
  
_“You’re so beautiful, Poe. It’s not just your face — it’s like your heart’s made out of pure light.”_  
  
Ben was wrong, of course. Poe wasn’t perfect. There were veins of darkness threading through him. The time when the Spice Runners had exploited him and Zorii, preyed on Poe’s desire to help others. (Spice, after all, could be used for medicinal purposes, right?) There were times when he was stupid and reckless and quick to anger.   
  
_“Like me,” Ben had said. “And it only makes me love you more.”_  
  
Poe had a lot of love to give. Dad had joked about it when Poe was little, that Poe wanted to be friends with everybody. But he knew he’d move the stars for anyone, from a stranger on the street to the man he loved, Ben Solo.   
  
***  
  
That was why he had turned on Holdo. Looking back, they had both loved the Resistance; Holdo just kept her feelings under wraps, playing the part of the strategist, the silent hero. Poe had worn his on his sleeve. All his friends in the Resistance, even people who didn’t like him, everyone from Finn to Rose to Kaydel to everyone...he’d loved them. Not romantically, not even simply the compassion felt for different beings, but simple loyalty as well. Simple loyalty, and a desire to protect life that bordered on trying to play hero too hard.   
  
Love had led him there, to mutiny against Holdo and be subsequently tased.   
  
Love had made him at least try to get Ren to stop his massacre of the villagers on Tuanul — because he wasn’t about to stay silent while people with families and children and elderly parents and paramours simply got slaughtered. There wasn’t a single being in the galaxy who was unimportant. Poe could stand by that.   
  
Love was something that Ben had praised in him back when he was still Ben. _“You’re so kind, Poe. So kind and good and light. I wish the galaxy would see why I love you with all I am — not just what scars you bear.”_  
  
Love could also be terrible, as well as beautiful.   
  
Poe Dameron loved others too freely — the most terrible and beautiful thing about him.


End file.
